Secretary for the Civil Service Paul Tang Kwok-wai announced on Tuesday that the Executive Council had decided to give all civil servants a pay raise according to the recommendation of the pay trend report: senior and principal officials will receive a 2.55 percent raise while middle and lower levels will get a 3.92 percent raise. The civil servant groups immediately expressed dismay at the decision, saying it did not take rising inflation or the civil servants' morale into account.

Let's not forget the current civil servant pay adjustment mechanism does not reflect inflationary change necessarily. Such adjustments should be conducted strictly by the book, which is the established civil-servant pay rise adjustment mechanism. Civil servant groups are obligated to respect the pay rise adjustment mechanism, help maintain its stability and predictability, avoid disputes as well as protect the public image of their members and the government as a whole.

The civil-servant pay rise plan presented by the government has taken six factors into account. They are the net pay trend indicators based on the findings of the newly-completed 2013 pay trend survey, Hong Kong's economic situation, changes in the cost of living, the state of government finance, civil servants' expectations for this year's pay raise and their morale.

Some civil servant groups have likened the latest pay rise plan to a de facto pay cut because it is lower than the current inflation rate, but the fact is the basic inflation rate at the time of the pay trend survey was 3.7 percent, which is why it recommends a 3.92 percent increase for civil servants in the middle and lower salary bands. This increase was in fact slightly higher than inflation. The recommended pay rise for the higher salary band is actually lower than inflation, but the senior and principal officials are highly paid and should have no problem maintaining their dignified lifestyle. Besides, they must keep in mind that they are paid with taxpayers' money and insisting on salary increases greater than inflation rates is grossly unfair to taxpayers.

This is an excerpted translation of a Wen Wei Po editorial published on June 5.

(HK Edition 06/06/2013 page1)